Pan-African Network for the Arts in Environmentally Sustainable Development, 2021-2023

The project aimed to test a co-creative method whereby policy actors, citizens, artists and researchers co-created artworks about environmental issues. The project aimed to see if such an exercise was possible in multiple contexts, and to explore the effect of working in such an activity on the co-creation of understanding between these groups, for example about their differnet viewpoints on a common issue.
The experiment was carried out in country-level workshops in five African countrise. A report was produced on each workshop.
Part of the data set consists of original artwork, created by the project partners in the workshops. This includes paintings, photographs, songs, lyrics and videos.
Participants in Ghana created one song, with sections in each of 5 languages, about the relationship between livestock herding, peace and environmetal protection.
Participants in Kenya worked in small groups to create drawings expressing their views about how milk could be commercialised, and were encouraged by the facilitator to draw containers milk could be sold in. An artist used these drawings to create a painting about the cultural aspects of livestock keeping.
Participants in Senegal co-created two paintings, using a collage method, about coastal problems in St. Louis, Senegal. One painting focused on the unequal effects on richer and poorer inhabitants of sea level rise, induced by climate change. One picture focused on the problem of coastal pollution.
Participants in Mali created a poem and a painting about water resource depletion.
Participants in Mauritania contributed ideas on climate change to a musician who created a song about social cohesion and action on climate change. A music video accompanies the song. Simultaneously, an artist painted a painting about climate change in Mauritania.
Part of the data collection includes workshop reports in English and French which show the participants' commentary about the art works they created and describe the process of creating them.<p>This project uses the arts as a way to facilitate communication between citizens and policy actors, on issues of environmentally sustainable development. The project will establish a network of people across Africa to trial this, learn about how it works in different places, and even achieve policy impact in relation to live environmental issues that concern them.
It draws on two previously funded AHRC projects. In our previous projects, we found that various art forms, including song and music, photography, sculpture and plays, can be used to facilitate dialogue between citizens and policy actors. Often, policy actors communicate directives 'down' to citizens, citizens communicate concerns directly 'up' to policy actors, or citizens agitate through art to create public pressure on policy actors. Rarely, co-creation of understanding between these actors may take place.
The project will create a network of people across five countries: Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Ghana and Kenya. We will bring together artists, citizen groups, researchers and policy actors from each country. These network members will organise national level workshops, each one based on a specific theme of concern to environmentally sustainable development. These include: changes to pastoral livelihoods in the contexts of climate change, the role of apiculture, flooding, desertification, and farming in the context of sea level rise. The theme running through these issues is development in the context of climate change. Artists will facilitate an artistic or cultural activity, such as production of a song or photographs, through which citizens and policy actors will share ideas and perspectives on these issues. They will work towards specific policy actions that need to happen. The exact format each workshop will take is decided at national level by the workshop participants before and during the workshop. It will be guided by the work we did in previous projects.
We will share our national level artworks on a group digital space, and have an online dialogue session where all international participants learn about each other's experiences. This will help us all understand what worked in different places and how, and the different roles the arts can play in facilitating communication between citizens and policy. We will actively invite other groups to view our works, attend our online exhibition/ performances, and join our network by sharing their own experiences
This is a truly novel activity, especially in our study contexts, and it has the potential to engender powerful changes. Academic research has begun to consider the role of the arts and humanities in building and understanding climate change scenarios, and the different meanings people ascribe to different environmental futures. But, these approaches are fairly new in the East and West African contexts, and have not been widely applied to other environmental issues or beyond scenario building. The work therefore has potential to make significant changes. It will also be challenging: our former work found that entrenched hierarchies and sectoral silos can prevent transdisciplinary change. This work will show whether these need to be challenged for the arts to make policy impact.
The website hosting our outputs will remain live after the project lifetime. The network will continue to function through it, meaning that this work can go on to develop into other national or international projects, and have enduring impact.</p>

本项目旨在测试一种协同创作方法（co-creative method），通过该方法，政策制定者（policy actors）、公民、艺术家与研究者共同创作关于环境问题的艺术作品。项目致力于验证此类实践在多元场景下的可行性，并探索参与此类活动对这些群体间理解的协同构建（co-creation of understanding）的影响——例如，关于他们对同一议题的不同观点。
该实验在五个非洲国家的国家级工作坊中开展，每个工作坊均形成了一份报告。
数据集的一部分包含工作坊中项目合作伙伴创作的原创艺术作品，涵盖绘画、摄影、歌曲、歌词及视频。
加纳的参与者创作了一首歌曲，包含五种语言的段落，主题围绕畜牧、和平与环境保护之间的关系。
肯尼亚的参与者以小组形式创作绘画，表达他们对牛奶商业化路径的看法；引导者（facilitator）鼓励他们绘制牛奶可销售的容器。一位艺术家基于这些绘画创作了一幅关于畜牧文化维度的作品。
塞内加尔的参与者采用拼贴法（collage method）协同创作了两幅关于塞内加尔圣路易斯海岸问题的绘画。其中一幅聚焦于气候变化引发的海平面上升对贫富居民的不平等影响，另一幅则关注海岸污染问题。
马里的参与者创作了一首关于水资源枯竭的诗歌和一幅绘画。
毛里塔尼亚的参与者向一位音乐家提供了关于气候变化的创意，该音乐家创作了一首关于社会凝聚力与气候变化行动的歌曲，并配有音乐视频。与此同时，一位艺术家绘制了一幅关于毛里塔尼亚气候变化的绘画。
数据集的一部分还包含英文和法文的工作坊报告，这些报告记录了参与者对其创作艺术作品的评论，并描述了创作过程。
本项目以艺术为媒介，促进公民与政策制定者就环境可持续发展议题展开沟通。项目将在非洲建立跨区域人脉网络以试验该方法，了解其在不同场景下的运作模式，甚至针对相关现实环境议题实现政策影响力。
项目借鉴了两项此前由AHRC资助的项目成果。在过往项目中，我们发现多种艺术形式（包括歌曲、音乐、摄影、雕塑及戏剧）可用于促进公民与政策制定者之间的对话。通常，政策制定者向公民“下达”指令，公民直接向政策制定者“反馈”关切，或公民通过艺术形式发声以对政策制定者形成公众压力。而这些群体间理解的协同构建则较为罕见。
项目将在毛里塔尼亚、塞内加尔、马里、加纳及肯尼亚五个国家建立人脉网络，汇聚各国的艺术家、公民团体、研究者与政策制定者。网络成员将组织国家级工作坊，每个工作坊围绕环境可持续发展领域的特定关切主题展开，包括：气候变化背景下的游牧生计（pastoral livelihoods）、养蜂业的角色、洪水、荒漠化及海平面上升背景下的农业。贯穿这些议题的核心主题是气候变化语境下的发展。艺术家将引导艺术或文化活动（如歌曲创作或摄影），公民与政策制定者通过这些活动分享对议题的想法与视角，并致力于推动必要的具体政策行动。每个工作坊的具体形式由该国工作坊参与者在活动前及活动期间决定，并将借鉴过往项目的经验。
我们将在集体数字空间分享国家级艺术作品，并举办在线对话会，让所有国际参与者交流彼此的经验。这将帮助我们理解不同场景下哪些做法有效、如何生效，以及艺术在促进公民与政策制定者沟通中可扮演的多元角色。我们将积极邀请其他群体观看我们的作品、参与在线展览/表演，并通过分享自身经验加入我们的网络。
这是一项极具创新性的活动，尤其在我们的研究语境下，有望引发深刻变革。学术研究已开始探讨艺术与人文学科在构建及理解气候变化场景中的角色，以及人们对不同环境未来赋予的多元意义。但这些方法在东非与西非语境下尚属新颖，且未广泛应用于其他环境议题或场景构建之外的领域。因此，本工作有望带来显著改变，同时也面临挑战：我们过往的研究发现，根深蒂固的等级制度与部门壁垒（sectoral silos）可能阻碍跨学科变革。本工作将揭示，若要让艺术产生政策影响力，是否需要挑战这些障碍。
承载项目成果的网站将在项目结束后继续运行，网络将通过该网站持续运作，这意味着本工作可进一步拓展为其他国家或国际项目，并产生持久影响。